


A Hollstein New Year's Eve

by heartofholtzbert



Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-08 02:50:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11637384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heartofholtzbert/pseuds/heartofholtzbert
Summary: Laura and Carmilla celebrate New Year's Eve in a small town in Spain soon after leaving Silas





	A Hollstein New Year's Eve

Laura pointed her camera at the bathroom door, which had been closed for half an hour, and pressed the button to start recording.  
“Carm!” she called, for what felt like the hundredth time. “Are you still alive in there or should I call the fire brigade to break down the door?”  
“One second,” Carmilla grumbled faintly from inside.  
“I know that applying your usual copious amounts of eyeliner takes time, but if you don’t hurry up we’re going to miss the fireworks.”  
“We won’t,” came the reply. “Relax, cupcake.”  
Laura rolled her eyes but couldn’t help smiling. The door finally opened, and there was Carm, in black leather pants and a tight black crop top. Her eyeliner was of course also black, and as usual there was a lot of it. The only colour on her pale face was her bright red lipstick.  
When she saw the camera Laura was pointing at her she sighed. “Really? You’re taking that thing with us? You know, it’s almost starting to feel like there’s three of us in this relationship.”  
“Trust me,” Laura said. “You’ll wanna look back on these videos some day. You know, like when you’re too old to wear leather pants anymore and you wanna remember how good you looked in them.”  
“Please, I’ll still be wearing these when I’m eighty seven and can’t even remember my own name.” Carm went into their room and sat down on the bed to pull her shoes on. Laura followed her with the camera.  
“They’d probably cut off your circulation and kill you,” Laura joked.  
“Death at the hands of something I love,” Carmilla said dramatically, putting her hand over her heart. “How beautifully tragic.”  
Maybe it was all the talk about being eighty seven, or Carm’s hand on her now beating heart, but Laura suddenly sobered up as she thought about everything that had happened at Silas a few months ago, when Carm got her mortality back after Laura sacrificed herself to save her.  
Laura turned off the camera and sat down beside Carmilla on the bed.  
“Speaking of growing old…” Laura said hesitantly.  
Carmilla turned to her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “What?”  
“Do you ever… I mean… do you wish…”  
“Wish what?”  
“Do you ever wish you weren’t human again?” Laura blurted out. They hadn’t really talked about the fact that Carm was mortal now, or how she felt about it, and the reason for that was that Laura had been afraid to ask. And also she didn’t want to bring up memories of their time at Silas University, which had been painful for both of them. But now she’d said it and there was no going back. “I mean… do you ever wish you were still a vampire? And, you know, immortal and stuff?”  
She tried to avoid meeting Carm’s gaze, but Carmilla took her chin gently between her thumb and forefinger and lifted Laura’s face to look her in the eyes.  
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss any of it,” Carm said softly. “I miss the strength, the feeling of being powerful, and knowing I could win almost any fight. That was a part of me for such a long time, you know?”  
Laura nodded.  
“But…” Carm continued, letting go of Laura’s chin and moving her hand to cup Laura’s cheek. She brushed Laura’s skin lightly with her thumb in a way that felt so familiar and so safe that Laura leaned into it instinctively. “But if I was still a vampire, still immortal, I’d have to watch you grow old without me. And eventually I’d have to watch you leave this world without me. And I don’t ever want to do that. So no, I don’t wish I was still a vampire.”  
Laura didn’t know what to say. She just looked into Carm’s eyes and knew she didn’t ever want to be without her either. She put her hands on either side of Carmilla’s face and kissed her. This wasn’t like the casual kisses they gave each other all the time, when one of them said something cute or made a romantic dinner or before they went to sleep. This was love and need and memories of heartbreak and loss and hopes for the future all tangled up into one kiss.  
When they finally broke apart, Laura was breathless. She opened her mouth but she hadn’t regained her ability to speak yet. It didn’t matter. Carm understood anyway.  
“I know,” she said. “Me too.”

* * *

Once Laura had wiped Carmilla’s lipstick off her mouth and turned the camera back on, they left the little apartment they were renting in Spain and started walking down towards the bay, where the fireworks were due to start at midnight. The streets were crowded with people celebrating the last day of the year and Laura filmed it all as they walked.  
They arrived ten minutes before midnight and found a nice spot to stand, with a clear view of the sky that would soon be lit up with colours.  
“See? There was no need to get yourself in a twist, we made it on time,” Carmilla said.  
“Stressing is what I do,” Laura said. “Just like being chill all the time is what you do.”  
“I’m not chill all the time,” Carm protested.  
“Well you certainly act like it.”  
“Sometimes acting calm is the only way to actually stay calm. And calm is always better than freaking out. Blind panic never did anyone any good.”  
“Okay we are officially too sober,” Laura said. “It’s New Year’s Eve, for crying out loud. I think that stall over there is selling beer, I’m gonna go get us some. Hold this.”  
She plopped the camera into Carmilla’s arms and went to get the drinks. When she returned, Carm was checking her reflection in the camera’s lens.  
“Carm,” she said. “Come on, if I wanted close up footage of your face I would have asked for it.”  
“Sorry, Creampuff.” She handed back the camera and took a plastic cup of beer from Laura. “Why do you still record everything anyway?”  
“I don’t know,” Laura said. “I guess it just became a habit. And seeing things through a lens… sometimes it makes things clearer than just seeing them through my own eyes. Gives me more perspective.”  
“Huh,” Carm said.  
“I don’t know if that even makes sense. I just like filming stuff.”  
“Well get ready to film the fireworks then,” Carm said, looking up at the sky. “They should be starting any minute now.”  
They drank their beers (“Not exactly champagne, is it?” Carmilla said) and waited, while more and more people arrived until they were surrounded by a fairly sizeable crowd. Laura checked her phone: it was eleven fifty nine.  
When there were only ten seconds left until midnight, the crowd began to chant, counting down. Laura knew enough Spanish to join in.  
“...cuatro, tres, dos, uno…”  
One second later the crowd erupted into cheers and the first firework exploded in the sky above them, lighting up their faces with a purple light. Carmilla wrapped her arms around Laura’s waist and Laura wrapped hers around Carm’s neck and they kissed while more fireworks whistled and cracked above them. When they drew apart they smiled at each other for a few seconds, hardly able to believe that after everything they’d been through they were here, celebrating the start of a new year in a small town in Spain, with beautiful colours raining down from the sky and nothing to worry about, no one to save. It was just them, and they were happy.  
Laura turned around and Carm kept her arms around Laura’s waist, hugging her from behind and leaning her chin on Laura’s shoulder. Laura leaned comfortably into Carmilla, her temple resting on Carm’s hair. They stood there, bathed in light, together, watching the fireworks until they ended and the sky went dark again. Even then, they didn’t move. Laura had never felt happier than she did right there in Carmilla’s arms, and it wasn’t until later that night that she realised she had completely forgotten to film the fireworks.


End file.
